ASKIN’ FOR IT, Canada, 2018 Duration:12:30 Director: KERRY GAMBERG Writer:KERRY GAMBERG Producers:KERRY GAMBERG, MICAH MARTIN Key Cast:ERIN MICK, LEAH MCKENNEY, EBONY PHARAMOND Synopsis: ASKIN’ FOR IT follows three ride-or-die high school BFFs as they face the issue of assault head on. An anonymous video text depicting an assault forces three high schools BFFs to contemplate consent, sexual assault and the consequences of reporting. It turns out the friends have very different opinions on how the situation should be handled.

Teed-Off!,Canada, 2018
Duration:08:39
Director:Dizzy Daniels
Writers:Dizzy Daniels
Producers:Dizzy Daniels
Key Cast:Dizzy Daniels, Caroline Therrien, Mario, Mario Simon Fortin Gauthier
Synopsis:Our hero spends the day playing golf, but has to contend with pesky newspapers and getting his ball stuck in mud. Later on, he proposes to the girl of his dreams – but loses her to her irate boyfriend.

The Taste of Love,Chin,2018
Duration:23:57
Director:Jinwu HE
Writers:Tao ZHENG, Xiangxin LI
Producer:Min ZHANG
Key Cast:Luqi PENG, Yinzhang ZHU
Synopsis:The Taste of Love tells a story about the male lead, Jianjun played by Yingzhang Zhu. He came from an unprivileged family, making a living by selling crispy ducks, but he was longing to change his fate. Yinhe, the female lead played by Luqi Peng, went to Guizhou with her parents when she was 20. She gradually fell in love with Jianjun, the country boy, whom she found simple, authentic and unpretentious, and she wanted to be with him.

Characters,United Kingdom,2018
Duration:10:25
Director:Sir Franz Pagot, Rizwan Wadan
Writers:Ashley Chin, Rizwan Wadan
Producers:Rizwan Wadan
Ket Cast:David Schaal, Aaron Taylor
Synopsis: Our first short film, shot in London, looks into the characters that make up this wonderful city and how importantly judging someone by their appearance defines us more than it defines them. It centres on how our true characters ultimately shine through and breakdown the prejudices and racial barriers that we often put up around us.

The 9ª,Spain,2019
Duration:14:00
Director:Daniel H. Torrado
Writers:Daniel H. Torrado
Producers:Daniel H. Torrado, Diego de la Concepción, Felipe Martín, Angel Soriano, Antonio Lagar
Key Cast:Emilio Gutierrez Caba, Ramón Álvarez, Cristina de Iza, Sara Moraleda, Samy Khalil
Synopsis:Inspired by the real story of the Ninth Company, a unit of the allied army formed entirely by Spanish exiles from the civil war who fought united in the Second World War, They was protagonists of the liberation of Paris. One of them, Manuel will join to the Ninth Company to save his daughter from Paris occupied by the Nazis.

The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God,Israel,2018
Duration:12:07
Director:Rita Borodiyanski
Writers:Rita Borodiyanski
Producers:Rita Borodiyanski
Key Cast:David Ziselson, Doron Tzabari, Roberto Polak, Mira Suri
Synopsis:The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God is a comic drama that tells the story of Eddie, a failed cook who is desperate to find love.

Stigma,United Kingdom,2018
Duration:09:21
Director:Kyriakos Rontsis
Writer:Kyriakos Rontsis
Producer:Kristiyan Georgiev
Ket Cast:Jon Birkbeck
Synopsis:Before the curtain falls, a young man weeps without remembering why. How long does a birdsong last? How much silence descends with a caress? How much black is needed to contaminate white? A drop will do.

Capitán Kinesis,Spain,2018
Duration:10:52
Director:Carles Jofre
Writer:Carles Jofre
Producer:Francisco Jime´nez
Key Cast:Jaume Pla, Eduard Josep Go´mez, Pepe Mediavilla
Synopsis:Sebastián is a retired superhero who lives alone in a small flat. He leads a quiet life and it’s ages since he last used his superpowers, but an unexpected visit puts his world at risk and he Will forced to defend it.

Hallowed (Mistigri),France,2018
Duration:28:48
Director:Fabrice Chiambretto
Writer:Fabrice Chiambretto
Producer:Anforea productions, Les Jardins de Meyzieu ODYNEO
Key Cast:Sean Ruffier des Aimes, Frank Halison, Libert Saïd Meydan, Sandra Lentini, Fatimzohra Zemel, Charlotte Robin
Synopsis:Paul, a homeless man is invited to dinner in a unit for people with disabilities. He will find himself trapped in a cruel game, led by four residents. A fantastic experience where life and death clash to be swallowed or arise !

Line Of Duty,India,2018
Duration:12:44
Director:Mayank Malhotra
Writer:Mayank Malhotra
Producers:Ankita Batra, Mayank Malhotra, Ishaan Sarine, Shivangel Gandhi
Key Cast:Priyanshu Painyuli, Sayan Banerjee, Naresh Malik, Ganapathy Aiyar
Synopsis:A Young recruit of the Indian army posted at a remote bunker, is asked to forego his principals of humanity against the rigid border regulations. With a natural calamity at hand, are all regulations applicable?

Nothing To Lose,United Kingdom,2018
Duration:10:30
Directors:Toby Reisz
Writers:Toby Reisz
Producer:Noor Lawson
Key Cast:Christopher Hunter, Fen Wilson
Synopsis: Adam is about to turn 60 and the world suddenly doesn’t make sense anymore. As he tries to connect with colleagues, his son – even his wife, he becomes increasingly frustrated in his attempts to understand and be understood. Maybe an encounter with a complete stranger will prove more successful.

The Boy At Platform 3,Germany,2018
Duration:17:04
Director:Michael Daniel Vetter
The synopsis is: “A boy. No friends. Disturbing family conditions. The main station of the big town nearby becomes his place of longing for his daily getaways. Lost and comforted by his fantasies he spends most of his spare time watching trains. One day…”

How to build a cloud,Mexio-Spain-United-States,2018
Duration:10:00
Director:Carlos Baraquin

Nora, Spain
Duration: 16:00
Director: Edgar Montserrat Torres
Synopsis: Vicente, a lawyer who is about to move out of town for work, receives a visit from Nora, a young girl who reaches out to him due to a case of workplace harassment. Vicente will relive an error from the past he already had forgotten about.

2028, Finland, 2018
Duration:20:40
Director: Petter Sandelin
Synopsis: 2028 is a dystopian short film that plays out in Ostrobothnia, Finland in the year 2028. The world is has undergone a catastrophe due to pollution and war and the survivors after the upheaval are no longer able to live on the outside. There is an elite that rules over the survivors and society. This elite wants to create a better world and raise a new humankind that won’t destroy the Earth, but their methods are questionable. The survivors are imprisoned by the elite, working and living together in pairs. They are held isolated from others, closely monitored and are expected to work for the greater good of society and the women are artificially impregnated to bear children for the new world. They are trapped in a daily routine of performing meaningless chores and giving birth to children that they will never see again.

Noe som skjedde på jobben
Duration:15:00
Director:: Mathias Dahlstroem
Synopsis: Kai Ove works at a desolate gas station. When he is put in charge of the register for a couple of hours, he suddenly receives more responsibility than he ever wanted as a woman shows up, fleeing from her violent ex-husband

Keep It Light, Switzerland, 2018
Duration:20:00
Director: Malika Pellicioli
Synopsis: Beibhinn, a young American, meets Côme during her trip in Europe. It’s love at first sight! But not only between them. For her, life in Switzerland suddenly makes sense. That’s why she decides to follow her natural exuberance and to marry this young man she barely knows…

My Boy Oleg, Australia, 2018
Duration: 19:00

The forest, Norway, 2018
Duration: 20:00

The Glorious Peanut, Belgium, 2018
Duration: 18:00
Synopsis: “The Glorious Peanut” is not a story about a peanut, it’s the story about Patrick. And Patrick is not a peanut, he’s a 30 years old bald lumberjack. It’s important to say he’s bald because that’s why he’s very unconfident. But his lack of confidence is also due to his Father, who crushes him like a peanut. Patrick dreams about having friends, and above all about having a girlfriend… Griet for example, the young flemish farmer girl from the village, whom he fancies since forever. But being bald, he will never get friends, let alone Griet. But one day gets to eat a peanut and that will change his life….

FAITH IN HEART,China,2018
Duration:16:10
Director: Yan Haitao
Synopsis: Faith in heart tells the poor man zhao zhi who was inpoverished and depressed by a car accident. But with the help of deputy mayor Li Yang. He overcame the difficulties and regained his happiness. The film with plain realistic perspectine of the masses, vivid display of the party committee, the image of the government in the minds of the masses. Although the protagonist Li Yang is a fiction character, but she is the epitone of the local poverty alloviation cadres image. From her, we can not only see the love, carefuless, pationce and confidence of Zun Hua’s grassnots party members and cadres who always keep the masses warm in mind and serve the people who leheartedly.

FLEETING TIME, China, 2018
Duration:21:25
Director:LUCAS ZHAO

Hello,Jingjiang, China, 2018
Duration:19:09
Director: kissfox Cui
Synopsis:The protagonist of the story, Xiao Nan ( female ), went abroad with her parents when she was 9 years old and never returned to her hometown. The beauty of the hometown has also been fixed in her mind. Until one day, Xiaonan’s company had an eco-tourism project and intended to invest in Xiaonan’s hometown, Jingjiang. She was sent here as a matter of course. This is the first time she has set foot on the road home in many years … She returned to her hometown, nostalgia and curiosity led her to start this trip to Jingjiang. The hometown is still beautiful, but it has changed dramatically. She ran into a teacher and a friend who had a deep memory of her childhood, and at the same time saw Jingjiang’s beauty and hope. The company’s eco-tourism investment project was finally signed in Jingjiang, and Xiao Nan is determined to stay in her hometown …

Hormone Distress, China, 2018
Duration:03:48
Director: Karen Hsu
Synopsis:Jimmy is an elderly office worker. Everyday he sticks to the same routine; gets on and off work at the same time and commutes between the same spots in the city just like other young people. Although he’s not young anymore, that doesn’t keep him from having youthful hobbies like listening to pop music, dancing at the clubs, racing, boxing, eating fast food, social networking… Life’s not grand but enjoyable. But recently, something unusual seems to be happening in his life. Jimmy feels like he keeps seeing optical illusions; everytime he looks in the mirror, he feels as though he looks like someone else. This is sometimes called “his soul is trapped in another body” in some folk tales. On the way back from working overtime late one night, the mystery finally became clear…

The Island, China, 2018
Duration:30:00
Director: Tony Wu
Synopsis: There is no summer solstice in June, and the lotus flowers in Weishan Lake are gradually in full bloom. The fishing villages along the lake are facing the development of lake island resources, illegal sand dredging, and deforestation. A Yuan family was a family who came to this village many years ago because of the flooding of the village. The mother farmed the lotus woven fishing nets to take care of the children all the time, praying for the Buddha to bless a family. The father and brother Shun Zishu lived out of the boat all the year round to make a living. The fifteen-year-old confused rural teenager Ayuan (eldest son) has been secretly in love with his father, who came to the town from the city to study in the autumn. Ayuan wants to invite her to find the island he used to dream about as he once visited. I haven’t gotten a response yet, but Ayuan’s dissatisfaction with the “Boss” horsepower and partner mouse and fat soldiers in the class ridiculed his love for Aqiu’s emotions. In the Dean’s Office, he was surprised to learn that Aqiu is about to transfer to foreign countries. After school, they were retaliated by horsepower and they broke completely. The frustrated A Yuan returned home and was eaten by his father and Shun Zishu who accidentally kicked their legs when they were running the boat. They learned the hardships of the family and the cruelty of reality, and the parents’ A kind of helplessness in life, A Yuan, who accompanied the wine and sleepiness, gradually entered the dream. In the dream, his family and friendship have returned, and with Aqiuyi. Looking for the mysterious island by boat, he gradually discovered that this unpredictable and cloud-covered island is home to some people. Many of the traces of life and the damage caused by migration, A Yuan realized that The autumn world is different from what I imagined, and I found that my homeland could not go back. Aqiu gradually disappeared into the fog on the island…
After waking up, A Yuan seems to accept the different future direction of Aqiu and his partner. With the panic and anxiety about the future, plus the family’s imperfections, after sending away good friends glasses with his partner, Ayuan rides a bicycle. Say goodbye to the shipyard where the father who is about to leave by the cargo ship, and finally Ayuan alone went to the lake to row the boat to find the island in his heart…

Will to fly, China, 2018
Duration:11:44
Director:Shi Xiangde
Synopsis:On a birthday party, a little girl wished her birthday “First, I want everyone to be happy every day, the second, I want to learn to dance, and the third…” Dad quickly intervenes to ask her daughter to rest her third wish. . But this seemingly simple desire has opened the journey of this family to a positive and negative argument. The father’s wholehearted support, but her mother has the opposite opinion. So Dad bought a beautiful set of ballet clothes for her daughter, combed her hair for her daughter, took her lacing, took her daughter, allowed her to stagger away with her toes, and even went to bed, and my dad was sleeping with her daughter and practicing ballet dancers. Finger movements. Dad often persuaded her mother to help her daughter, and her mother took her daughter’s practice as a routine. One day at a dinner, my mother watched their father feed her daughter and eat at the dinner table. The father and the daughter played while they were eating. Dad even asked for her daughter to go to the dance classroom to practice with other children. So my mother made a grumpy tantrum and my mother felt that Dad should measure her daughter’s age and strength. Yu went into the room and hid herself in the room. When Hao comforted his daughter’s emotions, he entered the room and gently kissed his wife’s forehead. He told her to go to bed to see her daughter. The daughter slept. Yu entered her daughter’s room. When her father had already gone to sleep and was about to turn off the lights for the two, the daughter called her mother and told her mother earnestly that the third wish of her birthday was to be like a normal child. She also wanted to learn from her heart. Everything, I hope I can stand still. After listening to her tears and her mother’s heart tumbling, all this time, I recalled that my dad had been trying to make her daughter feel like she was a normal child, and she seemed to be completing a small dream when she was rejuvenating and combing her hair. Looking back at her daughter’s habit of shrinking her fingers with SMA, Dad just wanted to make her gesture like dancing. The pain that was diagnosed at the time had caused her mother to lose her smile, but her mother seemed to realize it. One day, just as Hao and Joy were practicing (rehabilitation) as usual, Yu pushed an electric wheelchair, my mother picked up her daughter in a wheelchair, Hao played music, and took his daughter’s laps. Dancing in the living room, from this moment, their smiles prove that they are like all normal people and they also have a happy home.

CHILDREN SHORTS

My Mother’s Eyes, United Kingdom,2018
Duration:04:39
Director:Jenny Wright
Synopsis:A story about motherhood and loss in an abstracted world of childhood memory.

Balance Singapore,2018
Duration:03:36
Director:Raymond Limantara Sutisna
Synopsis:Balance is a 2D animated short film about a boy and a girl fighting for painting space, both refusing to give in until the mess they create goes out of control. They then realise the only way out is to work together and strive for coexistence.

Candra-Sasa (Moon-Rabbit),India,2018
Duration:09:48
Director:Rahul Yadav
writers:Rahul Yadav
Producers:Aditya Bharadwaj
Key Cast:Shruti Sharma, Rohini
Synopsis:A country where food, cloth and shelter comes as priority to education of a child, Article 21a of Indian constitution seems frivolous. This is a story of an Indian citizen who instead of seeking her primary education even after 70 years of independence is walking miles from her home to school, not to receive education but to find some food. While this problem remains old but the solution is spars and India remains a third of worlds illiterate. This girl too is trying hard to bring all the arithmetic she knows to earn her livelihood . The Short Film ‘10 Ka 4” revolves around the character of a 7year old girl who is trying to make a living for her family by selling stationary outside a high class English medium school. The movie is also trying to show the two different strata’s in the society, and how one of them is very vigorously fighting to reach where the others are. The film also sheds light on child labour & right to education which are very prominent in today’s society.

Candra-Sasa (Moon-Rabbit),India,2018
Duration:05:55
Director:Navodit Mandal
Writer:Navodit Mandal
Producers:IDC, School of Design, IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India
Key Cast:Rashi Gupta, Rahul Sharma, Prabhat Negi, Nikhil Singh, Navodit Mandal
Synopsis:The Jataka Tales were written for mankind to gain knowledge and morality.So after going through so many Jataka Tales and I took the tale of “Hare on the Moon”. It is the story when Buddha, in a previous life, was born as a Rabbit; and lived in a jungle with three friends a jackal, a monkey and an otter. They all resolved to practice alms giving on the day of the Full moon(Upostha), believing a demonstration of great virtue. I have taken the essences of the story which are Compassion, Self Sacrifice, Goodness of giving alms and treating everyone with same respect and honor. This short animation film is a humble effort to evoke these feelings of being a good being .

Slides,United States,2018
Duration:04:43
Director:Andres Padilla
Writer:Andres Padilla
Synopsis:A man has an argument with his girlfriend that spurs a journey through his past–with the help of a childhood toy–to fix his present and their future.

Out of Image,Germany,2018
Duration:05:50
Directors:Jason Stewart
Writers: Jason Stewart
Key Cast:Ariel-Nil Levy, Catalin Jugravu
Synopsis:At the gallery, a searching young man (LESTER) stumbles into an intimate experience with the eccentric photographer (MARK), finding himself suddenly on the wrong side of power in this relationship as well as behind the delusional scenes of his artistic work.

ETERNITY,Ukraine,2018
Duration:23:49
Director:Anna Sobolevksa
Writers:Anna Sobolevska, Alina Semeryakova
Producers:Vladimir Yatsenko, Anna Sobolevska
Synopsis:Once upon a time in the nearest future humanity overcome the death by digitizing the human’s souls. So, we will be granted with Eternity. But what happened if Eternity faced with Love?

Monster,Romania,2018
Duration:04:20
Director:Laura Pop
Writer:Laura Pop
Producer:Laura Pop
Synopsis:Living a constant adolescent drama with the monster inside her mind, a young girl embarks on a spiritual journey in order to make peace with herself and with the ones around her.

Awake,United Kingdom,2018
Duration:01:51
Director:Shan Yang
Writer:Shan Yang
Producer:English National Opera
Synopsis:Shadow of Jack the Ripper has been haunting Whitechapel for a long time, threatening the local impoverished women’s lives, and such sufferings have paralyzed their will to survive. One day, as the danger finally approaches and tries to take away a little girl’s life, all the silent women decide to stand up and fight.

Bangkok 2032,Thailand,2018
Duration:19:59
Director:Pongkiti Manityakul
Writer:Pongkiti Manityakul
Producer:Khomthong Rungsawang
Key Cast:Nino Wang, Matthew May
Synopsis:In the year 2032, amidst the arrival of another great flood in the capital of Thailand, two brothers, Nino and Non, are forced to relocate and drive back towards their childhood home situated in the north. While there, they must set their opposing beliefs on the matter aside as they prepare to face the inevitable.

The Youngest,Israel,2018
Duration:18:25
Director:Rachel Elitzur
Writer:Rachel Elitzur
Producer:Racheli Vaserman
Key Cast:Smadar Kilchinsky, Daniel Gal, Maya Har Zion, Melech Zilbershlag
Synopsis:Ultra-Orthodox young Leah works in her mother’s store. She has come of age and would like to marry, but her widowed mother won’t let go. When the two women light Hanukkah candles together, a small miracle begins to unfold.

Spring afterwards,China,2018
Duration:26:01
Director:Gang Wong
Writer:Gang Wong
Producer:Yuxin Zhang
Key Cast:Guowen Tang, Wanshan Ma, Yongxian Luo
Synopsis:March is the rainy season of Guangzhou. The warm and rainy weather often comes with high humidity, which brings an unpleasant sticky feeling. The Luo family, who live in the old neighborhood, are busy preparing for the upcoming wedding. Wen, the son is a young writer who has published books and won some awards before. After ending a relationship, he remains unemployed and is writing at home for half a year. Unwilling to move on to the future, he often goes to bars, drinking alone and thinking about the past. His elder sister, Shan, who has got divorced, is taking care of her son alone, and she feels nervous but determined towards her second marriage. The father, whose wife died many years ago, brought up Wen and Shan by himself. Before the wedding, the Luo family, staying together, are giving support and encouragement to each other. It rains heavily in the Guangzhou at the night before the wedding. The bride and her family are waiting at home for the coming of the groom and his team till dawn. At this time before Shan leaves home, every one of this family has his own concerns in mind.

Doppelgänger,Inc.Mexico,2017
Duration:14:06
Director:Andrés Hernández Covarrubias
Writers:Andrés Hernández Covarrubias
Producers:Andrés Hernández Covarrubias, Leonardo de Rodas
Key Cast:Luis Román, Silverio Chávez, Jorge Covarrubias
Synopsis:Edgar Wilson is a lonely clerk with a monotonous life. One night an advertising spot offers him to change his life but he rejects it. What he does not know is that he has been selected to be replaced by an unknown being.

Good Boy, South Korea
Duration: 20:00
Director: Jóhannes Markús Magnússon
Synopsis: Junwoo is a 14 year old boy that lives with his mother, in his youth he was fascinated by football and was a very promising player, things however go downhill for him after his parents divorce and he gets into conflict with DU-HO who is the leader of his friend group and as a result stops playing football, he becomes isolated and starts shifting his focus in life to video games, things however start to look-up for him when he gains a new friend whom wants to help him get back to his old self. The good boy is however not ready to face his problems and by his attempt to avoid confronting them, a much bigger problem is created as Junwoo, through unexpected events brings a gun along to a football practice.

Curtea Scolii, Romania, 2017
Duration:10:36
Director:Alex Mironescu

The violet scar, Belgium, 2018
Duration: 17:46
Synopsis: During summer time, an 11-year-old girl with hearing impairment, seizes a chance to hang out with a special friend whom she leans on, but an unexpected event recurs her haunted past.

ANIMATION SHORTS

ABEO,Canada,2018
Duration:07:01
Director:Brenda Lopez
Synopsis:ABEO is a hard hitting mixed media animated short that depicts the journey of Nadia and Lupe, two immigrants who risked their lives to cross the Arizona desert in search for a better life.

Rex Factor – The Animated Show,United Kingdom,2018
Duration:16:54
Directors:Tom Sanders, Mike Foster
Writers:Graham Duke, Ali Hood
Producer:Tom Sanders
Synopsis:A rip roaring, comedic ride through the history of the notoriously infamous King Richard III… but is it time to rethink the legend? A one off film bringing to life the internationally successful history podcast Rex Factor.

DEATH VAN,Canada,2017
Duration:06:07
Director:Michael Enzbrunner
Writer:Adam Gurfinkel
Synopsis:The fictitious space-rock duo DEATH VAN tours through a miniature world inhabited by surreal creatures that are haunted and terrorized by a menacing and mischievous entity.

SELFIES,Switzerland,2018
Duration:03:40
Director:Claudius Gentinetta
Writer:Claudius Gentinetta
Producer:Claudius Gentinetta
Key Cast:Peter Bräker, Cécile Brun, Arzu Saglam
Synopsis:After the premiere in Locarno in 2018, SELFIES has been invited to over 40 international film festivals and won seven awards. The film is now selected for the 38th Brussels Animation Film Festival / 29th Cinequest Film & VR Festival, USA / 26. Internationalen Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart / MONSTRA – Lisbon Animation Festival and 28th Florida Film Festival, USA Swiss Youth Award at FANTOCHE 16. Int. Festival für Animationsfilm, CH Jury – Laudatio: ‘Selfies gives a general overview of our society and its decadence. We liked how we are shown, how we browse through our newsfeed, without really paying attention to anything. This is currently for the young generation. We also liked the fast pace and crescendo of situations and themes: sex, death, birth. This film impressively shows what Social Media does to us. » Best Film of the Festival at FILMETS 28th Badalona Film Festival. Spain Jury-Laudatio: «Selfies’ is a short film that sends a critical message towards our society today, where everybody feels the urge to photograph every moment to certify that what they experience is really happening. And, above all, it is a film where life appears pointless, in its positive as well as negative aspects, if it is not part of a selfie, however absurd this may be.» Jury Award at KROK 25th Int. Animated Film Festival. Ukraine Laudatio: «For the best group selfie of humankind».

It Starts With,United Kingdom,2018
Duration:02:40
Director:Laura Nasir-Tamara
Writer:Laura Nasir-Tamara
Producer:Random Acts
Synopsis:‘It starts with’ is a 2D animation short in mixed media about people falling in and out of love, and also making tiny teacups.

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS

Father of Akka,Germany,2018
Duration:19:23
Directors:Katja Tauber, Vera Grinblat (co-director)
Writer:Katja Tauber
Producers:Katja Tauber, Marius Kimmel
Key Cast:Isa Isa, Sadan Ashqar
Synopsis:Abu Akka tells us his story as a mosaic of memories as we stroll through his hometown. He grew up in a far from perfect neighborhood. There is a shadow over Abu Akka’s Past – a prank he pulled as a child that went disastrously wrong. He was consequently sent to prison as a small child and still faces the consequences of that day. But he also remembers the good times in this fisherman town. There he met his first and only love: Céline, a Swiss backpacker.

Portrait of a Block,Bulgaria,2018
Duration:26:00
Director:Veselin Zografov
Writers:Mariana Sabeva, Veselin Zografov
Producer:Bambashak Lts
Synopsis:An experimental approach towards the creation and development through the years of a panel block. Why things got the way they are?

Home,Sweden,2018
Duration:07:59
Synopsis:A personal perspective on coming home after nearly a decade abroad and finding that something is off in the familiar paradise. A warning that profound change is coming. Change that will influence future generations. This shortfilm centers on climate change in southern Greenland, told from a personal yet historical stand point.

Elk!,United States,2018
Duration:10:11
Director:Remington Daron
Synopsis:Starting with a vision to create a wildlife documentary, things quickly take a turn for the worse due to unforeseen circumstances.

Paradigm Now: The Albizia Project,United States,2018
Duration:05:00
Director:Rob Lau
Writer:Emily Lau
Producer:Joseph Valenti
Synopsis:Is the albizia tree a destructive force disrupting native ecosystems and communities in Hawai’i, or the material that can awaken new paradigms through thoughtful design? PARADIGM NOW dives into the journey undertaken by Joseph Valenti, architect and founder of The Albizia Project. In pioneering the housing prototype named Lika, Valenti has opened the door to sourcing timber locally, restoring ecosystems, and designing for future island resilience.

Wake Up!What would you do to change the world?,Spain,2018
Duration:30:00
Director:ÁNGEL LOZA

Prints, Argentina
Duration:24:00
Director:Eugenia Gonzalia
Synopsis:It is shuddering that an specific event can turn, move, jump throw the pieces off the board. This is exactly what happened to Javier’s family and friends. A young man who was 20 years old, had a lot of dreams to fullfill, being a pilot between them, departed this life in a plane collision. How can you overcome this chaos? What to do with those feelings?. Here is where the social network found place and purpose.

Hedi Mohr, Germany, 2018
Duration: 15:00

Final Show, China, 2018
Duration:27:00
Director:Chen Jiarui
Synopsis:This film is about the process of creating a graduation drama for the whole class of the senior performing class of the Kede College of Capital Normal University. In the beginning, the students did not understand many of the teachers. After a heart-to-heart meeting, the rehearsals not only gradually entered the state, but also the relationship between the teacher and the students became more and more friendly. The atmosphere of the entire class was very harmonious, and difficulties followed one after another. Their class defeated the difficulty once and for all, and finally it showed a drama that belonged to 23 people in the class.

Never rare, China, 2018
Duration:30:00
Director:Chen yanv

EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS

The Hunters,Poland,2018
Duration:23:26
Director:Diana Zamojska
Writer:Diana Zamojska
Producer:Diana Zamojska
Key Cast:Jakub Stolecki, Pawel Gil, Mateusz Rusin, Piotr Zurawski, Jacek Beler, Diana Zamojska
Synopsis:A brother and a sister make a hunting trip round a big city (Warsaw) in pursuit of a right candidate for the girl’s boyfriend (and possible future husband). The main reason of such a weird behavior, we can give away now, is simple and obvious – ‘everyone needs someone to love’ and a caring brother cannot let his sister stay miserable. Is he going to succeed?

MOLD,United States,2018
Duration:03:37
Director:Sujin Kim
Writer:Sujin Kim
Synopsis:Negative words, such as oppression, fear, and insult can be heard at the beginning of the piece, and heavy shouts are heard throughout. Along with people who dance perfectly in sync, a moving cubic appears throughout the piece. Human movements look like a struggle to escape from that cubic structure. However, to escape is impossible because the cubic structure freely transforms in size and shape, like a living creature, more alive than the human bodies. Human bodies just repeat the same choreography, like a passive creature. A woman, whose body is transformed into an eagle, shows human desire for freedom from that limitation.

14,Japan,2018
Duration:03:15
Director:Hiroshi kizu
Writers:Nobutaka Shimoda / Hiroshi kizu
Producer:Nobutaka Shimoda
Key Cast:Honoka
Synopsis:The fear of being hurt, You are alone The desire to be released from its shell Expressed an emotional changes through dance The action emphasized by editing it becomes a sound and forms a rhythm in the head of who sees this Experimental video where the image became a rhythm track.

Adlais,United Kingdom,2018
Duration:10:00
Director:James Davoll
Synopsis:The Dyffyn Nanttle valley has been quarried for slate since the 14th century. This activity has all but ceased in the 21st century. The sound of industry breaths ever quieter, the legacy left is both tactile and aural. The gradient lines have shifted due to the physical change in the geography. Nature has returned and the wildlife no longer competes to be heard. The echoes of this past activity however are evident in all directions. The roads change in direction to navigate around the works, the tip piles contrasting the green foliage. Adlais seeks to explore this unique landscape by extracting sounds and visuals directly from it.

A P E X,United Kingdom,2018
Duration:04:00
Director:Stuart T Birchall
Writer:Stuart T Birchall
Producer:Numinous Pictures
Key Cast:Pixie Le Knot
Synopsis:“Emergence of a hybrid human-alien consciousness from the void” APEX explores the emergence of a higher life form, the convergence of intelligence and higher consciousness in the primordial void of infinite potential. A portal through which something greater and far more malevolent has emerged. This conceptual film was inspired by a love of the ‘Alien’ franchise and the work of H.R Giger. I wanted to explore the Alien concept set in a future abstraction. We witness a genetic hybrid emerging from the void, composed of the alien and human DNA. The creature: a biological zenith represents the pinnacle in biological evolution and higher consciousness, the being represents balance, a queen and creator, the APEX of being. I employed symbolism to build a subtext, using light (illumination) that symbolises the beginning or awareness or consciousness, the cube (structure) that represents the totality of human intelligence, alongside the blackness in both liquid and solid form to represent the void.

MUSIC VIDEO

The Cry,Czech Republic,2018
Duration:03:34
Director:Nikita Dovzhenko
Producer:Milan Steigerwald
Key Cast:Žánti, Kamil Strihavka
Synopsis:Music video starring Žánti (Zhanti), who plays the girl possessed by the devil. Her fellow villagers wish to burn her alive. Her only hope to survive is to get to the secluded church hidden in the forest. Pastor of the church is a great man, known for his ability to exorcise the devil.

Rhiannon – summer ballad about poor Louise,Austria,2018
Duration:08:18
Directors:Martin Zillner, Erik Kohlbauer, Cordula Meßenböck
Writer:Max Meßenböck
Producer:Roman Schett
Key Cast:Wolfgang Putz
Synopsis:Francois Villon’s „summer ballad about poor Louise” is a late-medieval poem, translated into German by the expressionistic poet Paul Zech, reflecting the multidimensional thinking of medieval artists and writers. The overemphasis of emotion and pathos in a story about poverty and war, was most interesting for the band to adapt it in form of a song and of course for us as a music video. Many well-known participants from the Austrian reenactment community came together to make this narrative music video possible, shot in various history-charged locations like medieval outdoor museums and restored castles as well as ruins. The video shows the fate of a woman, living in solitude, seemingly without possibilities for social advancement. She keeps imagining, being a tree in the wind, symbolizing her state of mind, going through better times, becoming a damsel and deciding to end her life as it becomes a frozen nightmare of loneliness again. The video is a reflection about the momentum, minor lucky events can gain in a life of abstemiousness, about the small timeframe that can open up to enjoy life, and the fatal fall after this small glimpse of happiness has been taken away. A lifetime spent in hopelessness, transforming into a state of wary contentment, shattering in the confrontation with the contingent events of medieval every day life.

Up in the Sky,Spain,2018
Directors:Sami Natsheh, Arly Jones

MINI SHORTS

Spokke,United Kingdom,2018
Duration:02:35
Director:Jim Archer
Writers:Tim Grewcock, Shaun Lowthian
Producer:Jack Harris
Key cast:Tim Grewcock, Shaun Lowthian, Lorna Shaw
Synopsis:A crime occurs on the boundary between two police forces, but all is not as it seems. Two weary policemen from either side of the county line must work in tandem, learning that two heads (and wheels) are better than one.

Sex Night,2018
Duration:02:37
Director:Daryl Grizzle
Writer:Daryl Grizzle
Producer:Stephen Steele
Key Cast:Jade Samuels, Paul Findlay
Synopsis:”A short black comedy about the intimacies of sex within the bonds of a long term relationship.
At its core, its about how sex can become more functional and much less romantic when navigating it in a world where children and work commitments often take priority.
The couple love each other but have reached an understanding that regardless to how tired or busy their individual schedules maybe, Thursday night is and will always be ‘sex night’.”

The Killer Postman Trailer,United States,2018
Duration:03:04
Director:Micah Ellars
Writers:Reginald Buchanan, Micah Ellars
Producer:Reginald Buchanan
Key Cast:Jessie James Locorriere, Mykie Fisher
Synopsis:For revenge a deranged mail carrier uses a screwdriver as the murder weapon to inflict punishment on specific customers. Not only are the police baffled by these brutal murders, but they also must stop a psychotic transvestite who poisons her/his victims for personal reasons. This is a chilling murder mystery with a showdown between these two serial killers in the end.

The Deepest Cut,United States,2018
Duration:04:54
Director:Alexandra Guillossou
Writer:Alexandra Guillossou
Producer:Alexandra Guillossou
Key Cast:Greg Ghosh, Matthew Ghosh, Darlene Ghosh, T.K. Ghosh
Synopsis:A documentary short about a father with secondary-progressive MS, who struggles with his father’s inability to cope, his mother’s guilt for passing multiple sclerosis to him, and his fear for the future of his two sons. The Deepest Cut alludes to the emotional conflict parents face when dealing with the mortality of their child.

AMATEUR SHORTS

Undone,United Kingdom,2018
Duration:06:43
Director:Sam Brewster
Writer:Sam Brewster
Producer:Sophie Keyte
Key Cast:Sean Van Lee, William Lake, Isabel Patterson, Davinia Hamilton
Synopsis:After seeing his best friend die in a horrific accident, we see a man struggling to maintain a grip on reality, whilst he musters up the courage to break the news to his best friend’s fiancé.

Cosmic Adventures,New Zealand,2018
Duration:13:29
Director:Bailey Poching
Writer:Bailey Poching
Producer:Maronui Taimana
Key Cast:Kurt Utai-Laurenson, Bryn Henry
Synopsis: Kent Lasershaft is a superhero for the ages. A defender of the weak and hero of the innocent. He’s also the creation of Kent Edwards, a quiet nerd who finds solace in his fantasy creation: the world of Cosmic Adventures! But what Kent does not realize is that the biggest threat to his fantasy world is not his fictitious villains, but rather, the hubris of its own creator. Log line: Cosmic Adventures is about a young scifi fan and told through the perspective of his heroic avatar.